Poetry is an unusual form of
communication in that it's the feelings of the author
being described more so than a description of actual
events taking place.

I never studied poetry and
don't claim to be a poet but even so I often find
myself wanting to write down my feelings even if the
reader doesn't fully understand the event it's
referring to. I think people pick up on things
mentioned in poetry and link it to events within
their own lives feeling empathy for the author. Many
famous poems are unclear as to the subject matter
being told and yet the reader can be overcome with
emotion and fully understand what the poet is
communicating.

The problem with words is
their meaning can differ depending on the reader. Two
words may have the exact same meaning defined in the
dictionary yet one carries more emotion than the
other. Does a poet use that to his or her advantage
or ignore the varying strengths of words? I think it
would depend on what message the poet is trying to
convey. Another aspect of poetry that doesn't apply
to story telling is the mood of the author at the
time. Any mistakes an author makes have to be left
alone, because if the author has changed mood during
the corrections phase the meaning of the poem
has changed. A typo or spelling mistake could
possibly be corrected but anything beyond that will
destroy its original meaning.

Anyway those are my thoughts
about poetry, as I said I've never formally studied
the subject. Below is a selection of poems I have
written, I hope you enjoy them.